My work is an all English environment which breaks down into ~85% English most days. Recently, I was speaking with a group of men that had a fluency range. One was fairly middle, one was pretty high, and one was lower.
The guy on the lower end during the conversation, says this to me: "Can I ask question that is maybe rude? In America there are many different types of black. Which type is...? Are you Italian?"
My answer was: "No, I'm not Italian." And that satisfied everyone, and we moved on. But, inside I was going ????.
When I heard, "there are many different types of black" my immediate thought was, yes that's true. Because in America we have black Americans, black people from the West Indies, or from Europe, or from different African parts. So, I thought the question was going in the direction of your country as a lot of different people whereas Japan is high 90s Japanese, with "black" used as the example since that is the most uncommon in Japan.
I answered the question in a way that moved the conversation fluidly, so the answer was right. But, yeah, I was still pretty confused. I pitched this to my training group to see if anyone had any idea what was going on. Since they know I'm not black or Italian.
One guy said they say black when they mean tan/brown. He had to explain the difference to some people lately when it came up in a conversation. ("My friend got back from Okinawa, and now he's black.") That solved that mystery.
I can't say with certainty yet, but my theory is that there is just one term in Japanese for dark skin. You have "Japanese" and the desirable pale, and then you have anything darker than that. Reminding me that I always have to check the makeup remover wipes to make sure they don't advertise whitening. And, reminding me that in my one talk with two women when I asked if they liked the beach, they both said no because they didn't want to get darker. One having darker skin than me lamenting she was too dark naturally, with the other agreeing.
Different cultures value different beauty standards, but this one is very strange to me.
That's wild! But it makes sense, just another of those cultural differences that makes living in this world interesting.
ReplyDeleteOne guy actually asked if Americas like to tan because he discovered Europeans do and thought that was weird. So I told him about tanning beds.
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